I travel the world without taking any PTO – here’s how you can too

Meet the man who goes on ‘extreme’ day trips as a hobby – covering thousands of kilometers in just 24 hours.

Michael Cracknell, 35, spends his free time traveling around Europe – reaching as far as Switzerland and Athens from his home in West Sussex.

And he does it all in one day – so he doesn’t have to take any time off work and still has a weekend day to recover.

A photographer by trade, Michael, from Haywards Heath, is also the founder of the Extreme Day Trips Facebook group – which has more than 250,000 members.

He uses the group – founded in October 2022 – to organize trips with others, while members also share their experiences with like-minded people.

Michael said of his first trip: “There were people who were quite skeptical and told me I couldn’t do anything in a day. I wanted to prove that you can.

“It just grew from there and exploded into what it is today. I am very surprised at how popular it has become. I had no idea this would happen.

“It’s all done in one day, so you don’t need to take time off work and still have a weekend day to recover, shop and wash.

“Then you can go to work on Monday and say ‘oh I went to Athens at the weekend’ and you haven’t used any days off.

“I wasn’t too keen on being away from home for long periods of time, so day trips were the perfect answer to traveling for me.”

Cracknell says his love of day trips began in 2002 when he was training to be a pilot and visited Toulouse with his father.

In 2020 he rekindled his passion for 24-hour adventures and booked a number of trips, before the Covid 19 pandemic brought his hobby to a halt.

After starting his Facebook group, he says a post went viral where he planned a day trip to Benidorm for under $125, which he says is his cheapest trip yet.

This year he started bringing people from the group on trips with him – taking 20 people to Switzerland last weekend alone.

So far, he has planned about 12 trips with approximately 15 people on each of them.

Cracknell isn’t sure how many vacations he’s been on since he started, but he says it’s “quite a lot.”

He added: “I’ve been all over Europe on day trips since 2022. People love traveling and enjoy themselves.

“I don’t charge, I just schedule it and people book themselves.

“I can’t believe how good the community is. They are just so grateful and can’t believe we did it in one day. And now there are over 100 people I’ve done this for.

“I made a lot of friends from this. The friendships that form from there are incredible.

“Most times when you come back you are absolutely exhausted. You’re still buzzing from the day, but you sure slept well that night.

“You kind of get used to it, but for new beginners the fatigue can be overwhelming.”

When recalling his favorite trips, Cracknell also mentioned visiting Athens with his father and two brothers.

In what he says was a “really special day”, the family flew into the Greek city and visited all the tourist sites in 24 hours for just $185 each – including dinner and activities.

The planner says with a train to Edinburgh alone costing more than that, it’s a no-brainer to take part in his fun trips abroad.

For 2024, Cracknell says he has another group trip planned in two weeks to Switzerland – with 2,500 people applying to visit the country with him.

He added: “I love Switzerland very much. Public transport there is much more reliable than what we have here.

“The key to cheap travel is to book as many flights as you can during a sale.â€